Last year I had an overwhelming to me number of single skeins of fingering weight yarn, so I made a goal of knitting one sock per month. I ended up knitting a pair of socks each month and also incorporated trying different styles of socks (different heels, 2 at a time, cuff down vs toe up). For 2025 I am tackling my sweater quantities and have a list of a variety of patterns with different sweater constructions (drop shoulder, saddle shoulder, Raglan, circular yoke etc). I like pairing skill practice and learning with stash busting to keep things interesting!
I have massive yarn stash, which is curated by both of us - me and my husband. It’s a hobby with a purpose - my husband is neurodivergent and in a spectrum. He has very brain power demanding job and when we figured that he soothes when touching textures - we started to make sure that we have different textures in my yarn stash 😊 he makes a wishlist for me to know what to make for him from which yarn and I love that. In the other hand - very rarely I tend to buy swearer quantities of yarn without idea for them and they wait… but in the end when te perfect pattern finds it’s way to me - those are my favourite knits ❤
I have like twice your stash in meterage. I don't regret my purchases. I only get overwhelmed over my stash when I think about the things I want to knit with it. I buy yarn with purpose 99% of the time, so I want the finished product not the yarn to look at 🤣🤣🤣
I have no idea what quantities I have, but I know I have a lot, and I started my own process this year of working it down, but also with the knowledge that I am not going to keep myself from buying yarn. I spent a morning with pen and paper writing down all of the projects that had been bouncing around in my head, and looked to see if I had yarn for them…. Turns out I had easily 20 projects that I could do with what I had on hand, so I pick from that list what I feel like doing (I have a variety of projects, knit and crochet) and then I cross them off as I go! I can see progress in how many things I have crossed off, and no longer feel overwhelmed with what I have. And I refuse to feel guilty!
My stash overwhelms me at times. I know what I want to do with most of it but my time has been limited the past few years. Working a full time job and caring for two terminally ill people overwhelms me so when I have free time I sleep. I’m retiring in two years and hope to regroup and get back to knitting more again. Love the rock collection.
Thank you for sharing. I think we sometimes undervalue how important time and energy can be when looking at a stash down journey. Sometimes even "self-care" activities like knitting can feel overwhelming. Hope you are taking care of yourself as best you can 🩷
Gah, this it the video I needed to hear. I have your stash beat by a lot, however, it has also gotten so overwhelming for me. When I first started knitting, I bought all the "pretty" variegated skeins. There were loose plans that honestly I hadn't looked into enough to realize that those colors weren't things I'd wear. I have been working on purging and destashing, as well as figuring out some gift knits, and this video shows me that I am not the only one. I have plenty of skeins that I love, that are from various travels over the US and to Ireland, Scotland, and Iceland. Those all have plans. So many plans, so many skeins, but I'm working now on intentionally setting goals. Thank you for this video!
Thanks for sharing! I think a lot of us are naturally drawn to those variegated yarns because they are so pretty! But like you said I also struggle to find ways to wear them. Good luck with your plans!
What a lovely podcast, working through my stash for the last 2 years, put down how much sock yarn I have in stash. And set a goal of knitting 4000 grams off yarn this year. Almost there already, keeping track every month how much I used up. Working on finishing a shawl, yarn was in my stash for almost 4 years now, so happy I'm finally making it. As for the sockyarn it's slowly getting less, but I'm still enjoying to knit socks 😁. Happy knitting, Petra
Good for you! 😊 I’ve been working on my stash for about 2 years now. I’ve gotten down from almost 12000g to about 7000g, mainly through giving away and donating. I use on average 2600g per year (I almost exclusively knit fingering weight things with really complex patterns), and my goal is to get to about 1 year’s worth of stash on hand. I am happy to have lots of partial skeins because almost all my yarns match now and I can happily do colorwork accessories with the leftovers. 😊
So I also have decided to work on my yarn stash many of which are located in storage place 5 garbage bags worth and extra large suitcase and 2 garbage s full of WIPs. Great amount of my yarn stash is worsted weight which I purchased on sale at a yarn store that went out of business. And the other half are hand dyed yarns while going to Rhinebeck each year. I decided to first work on the WIPs then on the other stash. So I'm with you on this journey now that I have free time.❤
it's kinda fascinating to see others' perspectives on how much is too much. like, for me, i would be panicking if i had your stash, but for the opposite reasons, I know i can knit this much in less than a year so i'd be freaking out because i'm running low on yarn good luck with your stash down journey. I'm very excited to follow along
Thanks for sharing! One of the great things about fiber arts (and I guess creative arts in general) is how personal everyone's experience is. It's so interesting to hear other people's perspectives on what they like about their stash and what works for them.
as a spreadsheet lover, i’m shocked i haven’t thought to make one for my yarn stash yet! you’ve inspired me to go through my stash at some point this month & make plans for everything
Such a great idea to be rational and logical of how to reduce your yarn stash 🎉 First time I have come across your channel and I can’t wait to see your updates so I can use them as motivation and inspiration for reducing mine.
The Sea Glass collection of patterns by Wool&Pine uses up stash fingering weight! My sock leftovers are being set aside for the cardigan specifically. Petite Knit's Sunday Sweater has a mohair version that uses two strands held together, if you're looking to get through the mohair quickly.
I love everything in my stash and it is all logged in my Ravelry account. I create project pages and weigh any leftovers for accurate tracking. About every 6 months, I evaluate what I have and donate anything that doesn't serve me anymore. I always have specific patterns in mind for new acquisitions. My favorite knits are sweaters, shawls and socks. So, much of my stash is sweater quantities in fingering weight. I rarely buy single skeins for the very reason you described. This year, I received several yarn gifts, attended some yarn events, and my LYS closed, so I have added 12 sweater quantities since January. When I run into partial skeins and leftovers, I look for ways to add stripes, pops of color, or shorten sleeves in patterns. I also hold yarn double to create a heavier weight as needed. I am very grateful for all that I have. I allow myself to buy new yarn, but many times, I find something similar or better already in my stash.
I just discovered you and I have to say that you have the most sophisticated podcast out there. I have several that I follow and love, but you have, by far, the most classy approach to your views and ideas for knitting. Thanks!
So organised. I love a spreadsheet 😂. My stash was doing so well but then I ran out of yarn when making a cardigan and needed 1 ball but I was too cheap to pay for delivery so ended up buying sooo much yarn to get free delivery 😂. This happens to me a lot.
That totally happens to me too! I feel like if I'm going to pay X amount, it should be on more yarn to get to free shipping rather than the shipping itself 😂
I enjoyed your calm approach to your stash. I have a lot of single skeins because I went a little crazy when I learned to knit socks two years ago and I have only been knitting accessories. I track my stash in Ravelry and started tracking grams in and out last month. My first goal is to work down my WIPs and then I’ll focus on knitting from my stash. Like you I don’t have enough data yet to project “typical” usage but I’m looking forward to getting a handle on this over the next year. Socks will be a big push in 2025 and I also have a few shawls that I have already purchased yarn for. I do have a lot of stash projects queued up, I enjoy looking for the right project for yarn I have.
I have been tackeling my stash this year after I realized how much it had grown. So far I am over one kilo and 7500 meters down. I track everything going in and out in a spreadsheet which is very motivating. I loved how you converted yardage to sq and giraffes lol
Well ya got me thinking, so I went onto Ravelry (I keep my yarn stash up to date there) and they have a way to download a spreadsheet which lists everything by type, color, yardage, etc. WELLLL….I have 225,537 YARDS in my current stash. Some overwhelms me but most not. But it did put it into perspective that I will NEVER knit that much yarn in this lifetime..😂. Great topic BTW!
Thanks! And I hope this came across in the video, but even if you have more stash that me that's totally fine! I'm not here to judge - we all have our own experiences and if it makes you happy I love that! Thanks for watching!
Omg I have gobs more yarn in my stash and yes, it overwhelms me. I have a habit of liking a yarn and then buying more in other colors. I might need an intervention…lol 😂 I am also acquiring more inactive whips than I’m comfortable with. I’m setting a goal of working through some of them and not buying any more yarn next year and the rest of this year. You are extremely disciplined in how much you have. Good job!
Yes, I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with the number of dormant WIPs I have as well. Good luck with your goal for the rest of the year and thanks for watching!
I recently organized my stash. I thought I was analytic, but definitely, you passed my organization skills, I never thought of measuring the yardage, even though I am an engineer. I have found one simple strategy to lower my stash, melange sweaters! All the odd colors on fingering weight held together might match and create a nice unique sweater. Hint hint 😉
Great video and very inspiring! I have a big stash of yarn and I have put the brakes on buying more for now. I have it stored in a cabinet with glass doors so that I can look at the colors which makes me happy. It's sorted by weight. I like your thought process and spreadsheet idea to keep track of what you have now and then you can see your progress over time. Thanks for your ideas. Looking forward to more videos on this. Take care, Kris K from Connecticut 🧶🌞
Thanks for watching! I feel like a glass cabinet is a great way to show off your yarn while still protecting it somewhat from the open air. Thanks for sharing!
I have never counted how much yarn I have in yardage but I counted all my yarn in balls/skeins at the start of the year. I have included scraps too as did not want those to get forgotten. In total I had 336 balls. I don’t regret my purchases either as they all gave me joy at the time of purchase, however, I’m starting to get very overwhelmed by my stash. Saying that, 11 months later I am up to 399 balls now 😅 most of them have now been assigned to projects and I have 49 projects in my queue on revelry with yarn assigned to them 😂
For both my yarn and my fabric (of which I have a much larger stash) the key for me has been displaying them. I am fortunate enough to have a dedicated space, and one wall is the ubiquitous Ikea bookshelves. Fabric on comic book boards and yarn in skeins live there among my reference books and baskets of supplies where they create beauty for me in my work space, remind me to use them and also discourage me from buying more when I want to make with what I have.
I have no idea how much I have in terms of yardage or the weight breakdowns, but I have a pretty good amount of DK and worsted - I've been trying to use my stash on elaborate blankets because while I like the repetition of crochet projects, I also can't be too repetitive because my ADHD will smash my motivation to pieces for not being engaging enough, rendering the project a permanent WIP. Last year I was able to complete a 4'x4' blanket, only needing to purchase 3-4 additional skeins because my base color just wasn't enough, and it successfully drain a good amount of my stash! I just completed another blanket with newer purchased yarn and I'm making a matching bag for storage to gift to a coworker, and I'm using my stash for a different colored version to keep for myself! Anyone who manages to shop their stash for socks or sweaters has a lot of admiration from me, wearable pieces are an incredible endeavor.
I'm so impressed with the effort you put in to calculate the yardage for each weight of yarn! I share similar feelings as you, and try to limit my stash to one large tub...similar to the amount you had in this video. Each year I try to identify a stash-busting pattern or two that will use up those random single skeins and leftover yarn from other projects. Looking forward to seeing what you decide to do!
@@NewMoonKnitting socks are my go to, particularly stripy or colourwork, to use up any smaller balls of yarn. I did see Wool and Pines latest design - the Bluegrass shawl, which would be a great stashbuster! They have quite a few patterns designed with stashbusting in mind
The color of the Tidal yarn matches your lip color😄 I wish I had the amount of yarn you do because my yarn pantry could be confused for a small store, yarn shop (or so my friends tell me). There is a lot (as in A LOT). Some of the yarn I bought more than a decade ago. I have memories of most of it. It is not bothering me that I have it. HOWEVER I know I cannot possibly use all of it, so I occasionally donate or give away skeins or quantities and feel very good about that. As a process knitter (and occasional crocheter), I love having so much yarn to choose from. But I don´t want to amass more and I do feel the urge to put it to use, so I appreciate your video and ideas. I complete quite a few projects each month but it isn´t making much of a dent in the collection. I will continue giving it away (or selling some of the fancier yarns) so I won´t be leaving it to my children to deal with when I die (which could be tomorrow, next year or thirty years from now, who knows!). THAT would not be cool. I love to see how people organize their yarn. THAT is a challenge when you have a lot and not a lot of extra space in the house. Good luck with your process!
Thank you for sharing! I didn't even realize the Tidal Yarn matched my lips 😆. I love the idea of giving away yarns if I really don't want to work with them. I know there are some non-profits near me that teach knitting, I should look into what kinds of yarn they need and make some donations. Thanks for watching!
@@NewMoonKnitting Your yarn collection is lovely though, you have some great stuff. I really liked that bargain Icelandic yarn, I hope you find something to make with that. I hope you ultimately enjoy the process of eliminating or decreasing the amount (and don´t feel overly stressed about it). Those non-profit organizations that teach knitting would LOVE your stuff so that is a fabulous idea should you just want the yarn to be gone. And you know, your rock collection actually DOES look pretty cool!
my stash is a huge sometimes overwhelming monster with a mind and a room of its own and there are times I want to knit it down to a more manageable level. I have definitely been prioritizing knitting from stash the last couple of years. I am personally tracking grams instead of yardage just because its easier to me to weigh the FO at the end and note that down. I do like that I can go to my stash and start almost any type of project without having to plan a trip to the yarn store and I do love that I have a lot of variety but it would be nice to get it to a level where I didn't feel guilty if I did want to buy more yarn.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I think you're right, grams is definitely easier because you just have to weigh your leftovers at the end. Good luck in your stash journey!
That beautiful light wine/cranberry yarn and the sea green yarn from Outer banks, plus any other singles that are really pretty could be an accent color in a color work project, or even a hem and cuffs in ribbing for a yarn in the same color family. (just a though that popped into my head)
You could totally make a Stella Quilt Cushion with that navy/stormy blue that goes with your existing pillows! Just get some white or cream and use the blue as the contrast color. It would look so pretty if it's your style!
I have a pretty big yarn stash and am starting to feel a little overwhelmed by it. Generally, I don't think it is a problem to have a big stash but I just feel like there are some yarns I don't know what to do with. And when I want to start a new project, I try to use my stash but I always end up not having the right yarn (weight, amount, color etc.) in my stash. I have been trying to stash bust a lot, but it just doesn't seem to work for me very well. So I am excited to see what you will do!
Thanks for watching! I definitely struggle with some of those issues as well (wrong color or amounts), hoping that through this journey I can come up with some new strategies to share!
Oh yes, lets measure in cats weight! Last year I bought the amount of a cat and knit up a little more than half of it. This year I bought half so far, but I knit less as well. Finishing some unfinished items would help me.
I adore your minerals collection and definitely can relate to this hobby even though my collection stoped its growth year ago. Oh, no, I'm lying, I just found and brought a few apatite rocks from my last fall trip to Khibiny😅
This was fun! Please let us know how its going ☺️ I get overwhelmed by a large stash. I knit a lot and have lots of leftovers from projects that I don’t like lingering. So right now I’m knitting a TON of arched gusset mittens in all of my DK, worsted and Aran yarn leftovers and I love it 🥰
That's great! Those mittens sound like a great idea to have on hand when I'm working through some of this yarn, especially for single skeins. Thanks for watching!
If it makes you feel any better, if my stash was your size I would have no problems lol. I have so much yarn. It is ridiculous. Thanks for the inspiration and good luck on your stash down!
Love the idea of the blue yarn for the pillow. How about add a trim/accent with the Iclandic black and white maybe a neck roll pillow and use the yarn double. Good luck
I wish my stash was that easy to sort out, I have 25 bins full of yarn. I’m taking some time off over Christmas and I want to sort it out by weight then bye manufacturer than fiber. I’m going to use Ravelry to organize my yarn.
Great video, and I'm so glad to be finding it now, as I try to figure out how I want to go about reducing my stash! I have quite a bit more than you, so the numbers you shared about how many yards you have was very sobering! Time for me to catalog and get down to business, I guess!!
I was gifted a friend's laceweight yarn stash almost 2 years ago. I cringe to think of the yardage I have in that alone. Last year I started combining laceweight yarns. Two strands makes a fingering weight, 4 makes about a DK. Sometimes, I carry a laceweight with another weight of yarn for color. At the moment, I'm using two laceweight with a sport weight yarn. I'm thinking about listing some on Ravelry to see if I can sell or swap some.
Thanks for sharing! Great idea to combine multiple strands, I've paired lace weight with other weights, but never thought to pair it with itself, it opens up a whole bunch of new opportunities!
I have way more fingering weight yarn too. I am thinking holding it double and marling will work. Stephen West has some good patterns. As for single skeins of worsted i think you could make color work pillows. The cranberry and blue yarns in your stash would look great together in a pillow.
I have a really big stash that now looks larger due to a floor loom purchase, so to stash down I am going on a no yarn buying diet, with the knowledge I'm going to large festival in September 2025 and can buy then. But until then I'm doing a sweater quantity stash down and making as many sweaters/cardigans/tees as I can to use what I have and enjoy the making I want to do
Research “marling” or “fading” for blending yarns - and using single skeins with others. I’ve also used the De-stash feature on Ravelry to re-home fiber i know i will never knit - for whatever reason.
The wood display case for the rocks doesnt doesn’t do the rocks justice, it hides the light and is dark stuck on cubbyholes. I think if it can be displayed on glass shelves to catch the light it wouldn’t be a dust collector on a dark cubbyhole.
I have so much 'it was a bargain!' yarn that I never really use, or yarn that I got for a project that ended up being Not Quite Right(tm) so I need to find different patterns/uses/recipients for, or odd colors I need to find colorwork patterns for. I see a Bunch of fun potential color combinations in your fingering weight collection though, so I look forward to seeing what you make of things. Are you planning on making the pattern inspiration collection public?
Thanks for sharing! Yes, I'm in the process of putting together a ravelry bundle. It's not complete but you can see the start of my inspiration projects here: ravel.me/newmoonknitting/si3
So I have a google sheet with: the yarn name yarn weight yards per ball or hank weight per ball or hank how many balls or hanks total total weight total yards approximate date of purchase When I start a new project, I have a column to mark that it's been removed, and when I finish the project I'll update the totals. I'm planning to do a check at the end of each month in case I missed anything, and am hoping to share those updates on the podcast.
My stash is nuts, i make no considerable dents and still buy more, lol. That being said, I have a lot of one off skeins and have been using them for musselburgs and shawls. Basically small projects I can do in between my sweaters or just bigger projects in general
Omg thank you so much for catching this! I just recounted from the spreadsheet and I somehow messed up the math on almost every number. The corrected amounts are Worsted: 4,098 DK: 4,332 Aran/Bulky: 502 Fingering: 20047 Mohair/Lace: 4498 Total is still 33,744 Sorry about that! I should have never tried to do math on the fly 😂 I'll make an update in my next video.
Girl, I was like "20 fingering weight sweaters ?! OMG" but then I thought... wait, I believe I have more yarn... she has 30k and I have... 42k ! 😱 however, because I'm plus size so that's like ~20 sweaters if I don't differentiate by weight... I'm not really overwhelmed by my stash, I would just like to have somewhere to put it, and I don't... also, next year I'm moving, so I'm trying to have less to move (even though I *just* bought a sweater quantity... but I think it's going to be soon-ish on my needles). For now, I'm luck enough to have a couple of babies around my so I take advantage a it for my smaller quantities. That's my only strategy at the moment.
I feel like fingering weight is always surprising because of just how much yarn you get in a skein compared to DK, worsted etc. Looking at it, it definitely didn't look like that much 😂 Thanks for sharing, baby knits are a great way to work through smaller amounts. Thanks for watching!
You are concerned about this stash? This is small! I am a crocheter & I make items designed by CJ Brady for single skeins. They are boomerang shaped scarves (I call them fashion scarves) which I wear a lot of. I would suggest finding a knit designer that does similar items. Or maybe some of your singles could be combined to make larger items.
Last year I had an overwhelming to me number of single skeins of fingering weight yarn, so I made a goal of knitting one sock per month. I ended up knitting a pair of socks each month and also incorporated trying different styles of socks (different heels, 2 at a time, cuff down vs toe up).
For 2025 I am tackling my sweater quantities and have a list of a variety of patterns with different sweater constructions (drop shoulder, saddle shoulder, Raglan, circular yoke etc).
I like pairing skill practice and learning with stash busting to keep things interesting!
These are such good ideas! Makes it manageable while also keeping it engaging. Thanks for sharing!
I have massive yarn stash, which is curated by both of us - me and my husband. It’s a hobby with a purpose - my husband is neurodivergent and in a spectrum. He has very brain power demanding job and when we figured that he soothes when touching textures - we started to make sure that we have different textures in my yarn stash 😊 he makes a wishlist for me to know what to make for him from which yarn and I love that. In the other hand - very rarely I tend to buy swearer quantities of yarn without idea for them and they wait… but in the end when te perfect pattern finds it’s way to me - those are my favourite knits ❤
Thats so lovely! It's great that you're stash can bring such joy to both you and your husband 🩷 Thanks so much for sharing, and thanks for watching!
I have like twice your stash in meterage. I don't regret my purchases. I only get overwhelmed over my stash when I think about the things I want to knit with it. I buy yarn with purpose 99% of the time, so I want the finished product not the yarn to look at 🤣🤣🤣
That's great! Sounds like you've really figured out what works best for you. Thanks for watching, and good luck with your projects!
That is exactly how I feel. I want all my yarn to turn into finished items.
I have no idea what quantities I have, but I know I have a lot, and I started my own process this year of working it down, but also with the knowledge that I am not going to keep myself from buying yarn. I spent a morning with pen and paper writing down all of the projects that had been bouncing around in my head, and looked to see if I had yarn for them…. Turns out I had easily 20 projects that I could do with what I had on hand, so I pick from that list what I feel like doing (I have a variety of projects, knit and crochet) and then I cross them off as I go! I can see progress in how many things I have crossed off, and no longer feel overwhelmed with what I have. And I refuse to feel guilty!
I love your process! Such a smart and intentional way to work through your stash by making things that excite you. Thanks so much for sharing!
My stash overwhelms me at times. I know what I want to do with most of it but my time has been limited the past few years. Working a full time job and caring for two terminally ill people overwhelms me so when I have free time I sleep. I’m retiring in two years and hope to regroup and get back to knitting more again.
Love the rock collection.
Thank you for sharing. I think we sometimes undervalue how important time and energy can be when looking at a stash down journey. Sometimes even "self-care" activities like knitting can feel overwhelming. Hope you are taking care of yourself as best you can 🩷
Gah, this it the video I needed to hear. I have your stash beat by a lot, however, it has also gotten so overwhelming for me. When I first started knitting, I bought all the "pretty" variegated skeins. There were loose plans that honestly I hadn't looked into enough to realize that those colors weren't things I'd wear. I have been working on purging and destashing, as well as figuring out some gift knits, and this video shows me that I am not the only one. I have plenty of skeins that I love, that are from various travels over the US and to Ireland, Scotland, and Iceland. Those all have plans. So many plans, so many skeins, but I'm working now on intentionally setting goals. Thank you for this video!
Thanks for sharing! I think a lot of us are naturally drawn to those variegated yarns because they are so pretty! But like you said I also struggle to find ways to wear them. Good luck with your plans!
What a lovely podcast, working through my stash for the last 2 years, put down how much sock yarn I have in stash. And set a goal of knitting 4000 grams off yarn this year. Almost there already, keeping track every month how much I used up. Working on finishing a shawl, yarn was in my stash for almost 4 years now, so happy I'm finally making it. As for the sockyarn it's slowly getting less, but I'm still enjoying to knit socks 😁. Happy knitting, Petra
Thanks for sharing! That's amazing that you're already almost to your goal. Best of luck!
Good for you! 😊 I’ve been working on my stash for about 2 years now. I’ve gotten down from almost 12000g to about 7000g, mainly through giving away and donating. I use on average 2600g per year (I almost exclusively knit fingering weight things with really complex patterns), and my goal is to get to about 1 year’s worth of stash on hand. I am happy to have lots of partial skeins because almost all my yarns match now and I can happily do colorwork accessories with the leftovers. 😊
Wow that's incredible! Congrats on your progress and good luck getting to your goal!
So I also have decided to work on my yarn stash many of which are located in storage place 5 garbage bags worth and extra large suitcase and 2 garbage s full of WIPs. Great amount of my yarn stash is worsted weight which I purchased on sale at a yarn store that went out of business. And the other half are hand dyed yarns while going to Rhinebeck each year. I decided to first work on the WIPs then on the other stash. So I'm with you on this journey now that I have free time.❤
Best of luck with your progress - WIPs are a great place to start since you're already part of the way to the finish line! Thanks for sharing!
it's kinda fascinating to see others' perspectives on how much is too much. like, for me, i would be panicking if i had your stash, but for the opposite reasons, I know i can knit this much in less than a year so i'd be freaking out because i'm running low on yarn
good luck with your stash down journey. I'm very excited to follow along
Thanks for sharing! One of the great things about fiber arts (and I guess creative arts in general) is how personal everyone's experience is. It's so interesting to hear other people's perspectives on what they like about their stash and what works for them.
as a spreadsheet lover, i’m shocked i haven’t thought to make one for my yarn stash yet! you’ve inspired me to go through my stash at some point this month & make plans for everything
That's awesome! Thanks for watching!
Such a great idea to be rational and logical of how to reduce your yarn stash 🎉 First time I have come across your channel and I can’t wait to see your updates so I can use them as motivation and inspiration for reducing mine.
Thanks so much for watching!
Also I love your rock collection!
Thank you!
The Sea Glass collection of patterns by Wool&Pine uses up stash fingering weight! My sock leftovers are being set aside for the cardigan specifically. Petite Knit's Sunday Sweater has a mohair version that uses two strands held together, if you're looking to get through the mohair quickly.
Thank you so much for the ideas! The Sea Glass collection is beautiful, I'll definitely put some of those patterns in my favorites.
I love everything in my stash and it is all logged in my Ravelry account. I create project pages and weigh any leftovers for accurate tracking. About every 6 months, I evaluate what I have and donate anything that doesn't serve me anymore. I always have specific patterns in mind for new acquisitions. My favorite knits are sweaters, shawls and socks. So, much of my stash is sweater quantities in fingering weight. I rarely buy single skeins for the very reason you described. This year, I received several yarn gifts, attended some yarn events, and my LYS closed, so I have added 12 sweater quantities since January. When I run into partial skeins and leftovers, I look for ways to add stripes, pops of color, or shorten sleeves in patterns. I also hold yarn double to create a heavier weight as needed. I am very grateful for all that I have. I allow myself to buy new yarn, but many times, I find something similar or better already in my stash.
Thanks for sharing your process! Great ideas for how to use up partial skeins, I often struggle with that
Great idea! Good luck! Can't wait to follow your progress!
Thanks so much!
Gorgeous yarns! Really excited to follow your progress with this. You can do it!
Thank you so much!
I just discovered you and I have to say that you have the most sophisticated podcast out there. I have several that I follow and love, but you have, by far, the most classy approach to your views and ideas for knitting. Thanks!
Thank you so much! I'm so glad to hear you are enjoying it. Thanks for watching 🩷
So organised. I love a spreadsheet 😂. My stash was doing so well but then I ran out of yarn when making a cardigan and needed 1 ball but I was too cheap to pay for delivery so ended up buying sooo much yarn to get free delivery 😂. This happens to me a lot.
That totally happens to me too! I feel like if I'm going to pay X amount, it should be on more yarn to get to free shipping rather than the shipping itself 😂
I enjoyed your calm approach to your stash. I have a lot of single skeins because I went a little crazy when I learned to knit socks two years ago and I have only been knitting accessories. I track my stash in Ravelry and started tracking grams in and out last month. My first goal is to work down my WIPs and then I’ll focus on knitting from my stash. Like you I don’t have enough data yet to project “typical” usage but I’m looking forward to getting a handle on this over the next year.
Socks will be a big push in 2025 and I also have a few shawls that I have already purchased yarn for. I do have a lot of stash projects queued up, I enjoy looking for the right project for yarn I have.
Thanks for sharing! I think starting with WIPs is a smart goal. Best of luck with your progress!
I have been tackeling my stash this year after I realized how much it had grown. So far I am over one kilo and 7500 meters down. I track everything going in and out in a spreadsheet which is very motivating. I loved how you converted yardage to sq and giraffes lol
That's awesome! Congrats on all the progress you've made so far!
Well ya got me thinking, so I went onto Ravelry (I keep my yarn stash up to date there) and they have a way to download a spreadsheet which lists everything by type, color, yardage, etc. WELLLL….I have 225,537 YARDS in my current stash. Some overwhelms me but most not. But it did put it into perspective that I will NEVER knit that much yarn in this lifetime..😂. Great topic BTW!
Thanks! And I hope this came across in the video, but even if you have more stash that me that's totally fine! I'm not here to judge - we all have our own experiences and if it makes you happy I love that! Thanks for watching!
@@NewMoonKnitting oh I definitely didn’t feel judged at all. I loved the video and topic. 🩷
@ceb2737 Thanks for letting me feel okay. My stash in Ravelry is between 225K and 250K. I have already used 15K this year.
Omg I have gobs more yarn in my stash and yes, it overwhelms me. I have a habit of liking a yarn and then buying more in other colors. I might need an intervention…lol 😂 I am also acquiring more inactive whips than I’m comfortable with. I’m setting a goal of working through some of them and not buying any more yarn next year and the rest of this year. You are extremely disciplined in how much you have. Good job!
Yes, I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with the number of dormant WIPs I have as well. Good luck with your goal for the rest of the year and thanks for watching!
I recently organized my stash. I thought I was analytic, but definitely, you passed my organization skills, I never thought of measuring the yardage, even though I am an engineer. I have found one simple strategy to lower my stash, melange sweaters! All the odd colors on fingering weight held together might match and create a nice unique sweater. Hint hint 😉
Thanks for the suggestion!
Great video and very inspiring! I have a big stash of yarn and I have put the brakes on buying more for now. I have it stored in a cabinet with glass doors so that I can look at the colors which makes me happy. It's sorted by weight. I like your thought process and spreadsheet idea to keep track of what you have now and then you can see your progress over time. Thanks for your ideas. Looking forward to more videos on this. Take care, Kris K from Connecticut
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Thanks for watching! I feel like a glass cabinet is a great way to show off your yarn while still protecting it somewhat from the open air. Thanks for sharing!
I have never counted how much yarn I have in yardage but I counted all my yarn in balls/skeins at the start of the year. I have included scraps too as did not want those to get forgotten. In total I had 336 balls. I don’t regret my purchases either as they all gave me joy at the time of purchase, however, I’m starting to get very overwhelmed by my stash. Saying that, 11 months later I am up to 399 balls now 😅 most of them have now been assigned to projects and I have 49 projects in my queue on revelry with yarn assigned to them 😂
For both my yarn and my fabric (of which I have a much larger stash) the key for me has been displaying them. I am fortunate enough to have a dedicated space, and one wall is the ubiquitous Ikea bookshelves. Fabric on comic book boards and yarn in skeins live there among my reference books and baskets of supplies where they create beauty for me in my work space, remind me to use them and also discourage me from buying more when I want to make with what I have.
That's a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
I have no idea how much I have in terms of yardage or the weight breakdowns, but I have a pretty good amount of DK and worsted - I've been trying to use my stash on elaborate blankets because while I like the repetition of crochet projects, I also can't be too repetitive because my ADHD will smash my motivation to pieces for not being engaging enough, rendering the project a permanent WIP.
Last year I was able to complete a 4'x4' blanket, only needing to purchase 3-4 additional skeins because my base color just wasn't enough, and it successfully drain a good amount of my stash! I just completed another blanket with newer purchased yarn and I'm making a matching bag for storage to gift to a coworker, and I'm using my stash for a different colored version to keep for myself!
Anyone who manages to shop their stash for socks or sweaters has a lot of admiration from me, wearable pieces are an incredible endeavor.
Thanks for sharing! I should probably look into some blanket patterns, they seem like a great way to use up stash! Do you have any recommendations?
Since you like dk weight…. You might consider holding fingering together and or fingering and mohair to get dk for some projects
Yes! What a great idea, plus then you use the yarn twice as quickly 😆
I'm so impressed with the effort you put in to calculate the yardage for each weight of yarn!
I share similar feelings as you, and try to limit my stash to one large tub...similar to the amount you had in this video. Each year I try to identify a stash-busting pattern or two that will use up those random single skeins and leftover yarn from other projects.
Looking forward to seeing what you decide to do!
Thanks for sharing! Do you have any stash-busting patterns you've tried that you'd recommend?
@@NewMoonKnitting socks are my go to, particularly stripy or colourwork, to use up any smaller balls of yarn. I did see Wool and Pines latest design - the Bluegrass shawl, which would be a great stashbuster! They have quite a few patterns designed with stashbusting in mind
Also, as the holiday season is coming up, knit and crochet decorations are always a good project!
Great advice. I am really enjoying your podcasts.
Thanks so much!
The color of the Tidal yarn matches your lip color😄 I wish I had the amount of yarn you do because my yarn pantry could be confused for a small store, yarn shop (or so my friends tell me). There is a lot (as in A LOT). Some of the yarn I bought more than a decade ago. I have memories of most of it. It is not bothering me that I have it. HOWEVER I know I cannot possibly use all of it, so I occasionally donate or give away skeins or quantities and feel very good about that. As a process knitter (and occasional crocheter), I love having so much yarn to choose from. But I don´t want to amass more and I do feel the urge to put it to use, so I appreciate your video and ideas. I complete quite a few projects each month but it isn´t making much of a dent in the collection. I will continue giving it away (or selling some of the fancier yarns) so I won´t be leaving it to my children to deal with when I die (which could be tomorrow, next year or thirty years from now, who knows!). THAT would not be cool. I love to see how people organize their yarn. THAT is a challenge when you have a lot and not a lot of extra space in the house. Good luck with your process!
Thank you for sharing! I didn't even realize the Tidal Yarn matched my lips 😆. I love the idea of giving away yarns if I really don't want to work with them. I know there are some non-profits near me that teach knitting, I should look into what kinds of yarn they need and make some donations. Thanks for watching!
@@NewMoonKnitting Your yarn collection is lovely though, you have some great stuff. I really liked that bargain Icelandic yarn, I hope you find something to make with that. I hope you ultimately enjoy the process of eliminating or decreasing the amount (and don´t feel overly stressed about it). Those non-profit organizations that teach knitting would LOVE your stuff so that is a fabulous idea should you just want the yarn to be gone. And you know, your rock collection actually DOES look pretty cool!
my stash is a huge sometimes overwhelming monster with a mind and a room of its own and there are times I want to knit it down to a more manageable level. I have definitely been prioritizing knitting from stash the last couple of years. I am personally tracking grams instead of yardage just because its easier to me to weigh the FO at the end and note that down. I do like that I can go to my stash and start almost any type of project without having to plan a trip to the yarn store and I do love that I have a lot of variety but it would be nice to get it to a level where I didn't feel guilty if I did want to buy more yarn.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I think you're right, grams is definitely easier because you just have to weigh your leftovers at the end. Good luck in your stash journey!
That beautiful light wine/cranberry yarn and the sea green yarn from Outer banks, plus any other singles that are really pretty could be an accent color in a color work project, or even a hem and cuffs in ribbing for a yarn in the same color family. (just a though that popped into my head)
Thanks for the suggestion!
You could totally make a Stella Quilt Cushion with that navy/stormy blue that goes with your existing pillows! Just get some white or cream and use the blue as the contrast color. It would look so pretty if it's your style!
Oooh thanks for the inspiration! I was actually considering something similar but this would be a perfect fit!
I have a pretty big yarn stash and am starting to feel a little overwhelmed by it. Generally, I don't think it is a problem to have a big stash but I just feel like there are some yarns I don't know what to do with. And when I want to start a new project, I try to use my stash but I always end up not having the right yarn (weight, amount, color etc.) in my stash. I have been trying to stash bust a lot, but it just doesn't seem to work for me very well. So I am excited to see what you will do!
Thanks for watching! I definitely struggle with some of those issues as well (wrong color or amounts), hoping that through this journey I can come up with some new strategies to share!
Wow that’s so much yarn! Looks like you have your hands full!!
haha yes I do!
Ah Solitude Wool! I just finished some socks with their Targhee. It’s lovely wool.
That's great to hear! I'm really excited to use it
Oh yes, lets measure in cats weight! Last year I bought the amount of a cat and knit up a little more than half of it. This year I bought half so far, but I knit less as well. Finishing some unfinished items would help me.
Cat should be an official unit of measurement 😆
I adore your minerals collection and definitely can relate to this hobby even though my collection stoped its growth year ago. Oh, no, I'm lying, I just found and brought a few apatite rocks from my last fall trip to Khibiny😅
Thank you! Thats so cool that you found some apatite! Found rocks don't count 😆
This was fun! Please let us know how its going ☺️ I get overwhelmed by a large stash. I knit a lot and have lots of leftovers from projects that I don’t like lingering. So right now I’m knitting a TON of arched gusset mittens in all of my DK, worsted and Aran yarn leftovers and I love it 🥰
That's great! Those mittens sound like a great idea to have on hand when I'm working through some of this yarn, especially for single skeins. Thanks for watching!
If it makes you feel any better, if my stash was your size I would have no problems lol. I have so much yarn. It is ridiculous. Thanks for the inspiration and good luck on your stash down!
Thank you and thanks for watching!
This was really helpful! I also live in Virginia ❤️ but the tidewater area.
Love the idea of the blue yarn for the pillow. How about add a trim/accent with the Iclandic black and white maybe a neck roll pillow and use the yarn double. Good luck
That's a great idea! Thanks for sharing 🩷
I wish my stash was that easy to sort out, I have 25 bins full of yarn. I’m taking some time off over Christmas and I want to sort it out by weight then bye manufacturer than fiber. I’m going to use Ravelry to organize my yarn.
Great video, and I'm so glad to be finding it now, as I try to figure out how I want to go about reducing my stash! I have quite a bit more than you, so the numbers you shared about how many yards you have was very sobering! Time for me to catalog and get down to business, I guess!!
Thanks for watching, and best of luck!
This was great! Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
If that garage sale was out towards Fairfax over the summer, I was there too!
It was out towards Fairfax, but was last year I believe. I can't believe I missed a good sale this summer!
I was gifted a friend's laceweight yarn stash almost 2 years ago. I cringe to think of the yardage I have in that alone. Last year I started combining laceweight yarns. Two strands makes a fingering weight, 4 makes about a DK. Sometimes, I carry a laceweight with another weight of yarn for color. At the moment, I'm using two laceweight with a sport weight yarn. I'm thinking about listing some on Ravelry to see if I can sell or swap some.
Thanks for sharing! Great idea to combine multiple strands, I've paired lace weight with other weights, but never thought to pair it with itself, it opens up a whole bunch of new opportunities!
I have way more fingering weight yarn too. I am thinking holding it double and marling will work. Stephen West has some good patterns. As for single skeins of worsted i think you could make color work pillows. The cranberry and blue yarns in your stash would look great together in a pillow.
Great idea! I definitely have enough colors that go together to make a scrappy marled sweater. I'll check out Stephen West, thanks for sharing!
I have a really big stash that now looks larger due to a floor loom purchase, so to stash down I am going on a no yarn buying diet, with the knowledge I'm going to large festival in September 2025 and can buy then. But until then I'm doing a sweater quantity stash down and making as many sweaters/cardigans/tees as I can to use what I have and enjoy the making I want to do
Best of luck with your stash down, and I hope you have an amazing time at the festival next year!
Research “marling” or “fading” for blending yarns - and using single skeins with others.
I’ve also used the De-stash feature on Ravelry to re-home fiber i know i will never knit - for whatever reason.
Thanks for the tips!
Do you know other knitters who might consider swapping yarn, for the ones you are not drawn to? Enjoyed the podcast
That's a great idea! I don't know many people in person but I know there are a lot of resources online I could use. Thanks for sharing!
Compared to several people I know, you have almost no stash. Enjoy the yarn you have. 🙂
The wood display case for the rocks doesnt doesn’t do the rocks justice, it hides the light and is dark stuck on cubbyholes. I think if it can be displayed on glass shelves to catch the light it wouldn’t be a dust collector on a dark cubbyhole.
Thanks for the tip
I outgrew my yarn storage. So I bought another bookcase 😊🧶
I have so much 'it was a bargain!' yarn that I never really use, or yarn that I got for a project that ended up being Not Quite Right(tm) so I need to find different patterns/uses/recipients for, or odd colors I need to find colorwork patterns for.
I see a Bunch of fun potential color combinations in your fingering weight collection though, so I look forward to seeing what you make of things. Are you planning on making the pattern inspiration collection public?
Thanks for sharing! Yes, I'm in the process of putting together a ravelry bundle. It's not complete but you can see the start of my inspiration projects here: ravel.me/newmoonknitting/si3
How’re you tracking it all? You mentioned a database and a few properties you’re tracking, which sounds great!
So I have a google sheet with:
the yarn name
yarn weight
yards per ball or hank
weight per ball or hank
how many balls or hanks total
total weight
total yards
approximate date of purchase
When I start a new project, I have a column to mark that it's been removed, and when I finish the project I'll update the totals. I'm planning to do a check at the end of each month in case I missed anything, and am hoping to share those updates on the podcast.
My goal is to make a Stripe Hype sweater by Veronica Lindberg for a stash buster!
Great idea! That sweater is an awesome stashbuster
My stash is nuts, i make no considerable dents and still buy more, lol. That being said, I have a lot of one off skeins and have been using them for musselburgs and shawls. Basically small projects I can do in between my sweaters or just bigger projects in general
I need to try the musselburgh hat, people love it and like you said it's a great way to use up single skeins. Thanks for sharing!
15:27 oooh you should wear this! It’s similar shade to your lips (on screen anyway) so it my be very complimentary 😮
Good point! Maybe I should bring this skein with me to the cosmetics store 😂
Wait, sorry, you said you had 33,477 total but then had 66,000 fingering & 21,000 lace? Did I catch that right?
Omg thank you so much for catching this! I just recounted from the spreadsheet and I somehow messed up the math on almost every number. The corrected amounts are
Worsted: 4,098
DK: 4,332
Aran/Bulky: 502
Fingering: 20047
Mohair/Lace: 4498
Total is still 33,744
Sorry about that! I should have never tried to do math on the fly 😂 I'll make an update in my next video.
@@NewMoonKnitting thank you for sharing this video! It was a really lovely watch 🩵
I was also scratching my head thinking the math is not mathing here 😅
Girl, I was like "20 fingering weight sweaters ?! OMG" but then I thought... wait, I believe I have more yarn... she has 30k and I have... 42k ! 😱 however, because I'm plus size so that's like ~20 sweaters if I don't differentiate by weight...
I'm not really overwhelmed by my stash, I would just like to have somewhere to put it, and I don't... also, next year I'm moving, so I'm trying to have less to move (even though I *just* bought a sweater quantity... but I think it's going to be soon-ish on my needles). For now, I'm luck enough to have a couple of babies around my so I take advantage a it for my smaller quantities. That's my only strategy at the moment.
I feel like fingering weight is always surprising because of just how much yarn you get in a skein compared to DK, worsted etc. Looking at it, it definitely didn't look like that much 😂
Thanks for sharing, baby knits are a great way to work through smaller amounts. Thanks for watching!
You are concerned about this stash? This is small! I am a crocheter & I make items designed by CJ Brady for single skeins. They are boomerang shaped scarves (I call them fashion scarves) which I wear a lot of. I would suggest finding a knit designer that does similar items. Or maybe some of your singles could be combined to make larger items.
Thanks for the suggestion!
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That really is not very much yarn for a knitter or crocheter. Don’t worry about having to much!
Thank you!